Art Movements
This week in art news: Over 4,500 objects from the British Museum can now be viewed online, MoMA returns a Kirchner stolen from a Jewish collector by the Nazis, and Sotheby's prepares for a sale of Star Wars memorabilia.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Artist Alban Denuit, art critic Fabian Stech, music journalist Guillaume Decherf, and architects Quentin Mourier and Mohamed Amine Ibnolmobarak were among those killed during last week’s Paris attacks. The city’s museums reopened on Monday afternoon, an hour after a minute’s silence was held. The Paris Photo art fair, which opened last Friday, was shut down following the attacks. President François Hollande announced that France will implement a “right to asylum” for artworks and artifacts at risk from destruction by ISIS.
Artist Avery Singer turned down a request for a studio visit by Salon 94 director Jeanne Greenberg, citing her involvement in “Macabre Suite” (aka the #bronxisburning event), a controversial party held in the South Bronx earlier this month.
L.S. Lowry‘s “Father and Two Sons” (1950) sold for £1,625,000 ($2,470,650) at Sotheby’s (price includes buyer’s premium). The work was consigned to auction by collector Frank Cohen, who purchased the work in 1999 after selling his DIY business.
It was revealed that the Drawing Center is relying on donations from artists in order to fund their exhibitions. Artist Louise Despont gave the non-profit three drawings in order to fund her upcoming exhibition at the space. Despont told the Art Newspaper that her donation “just felt natural.” Stefan Kalmár, the executive director of Artists Space, was critical of the Drawing Center’s sale of donations. “[It’s] not how not-for-profits should operate. It has more to do with how commercial galleries operate.”
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced that it will return Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Sand Hills in Engadine” (1917–18) to the heirs of its original owner, Max Fischer. The Jewish art collector fled Nazi Germany in 1935, leaving much of his collection behind. A succinct timeline of the painting’s provenance is available on the museum’s website.
The Kunsthalle Mannheim registered 18 artworks with the Lost Art database after it concluded that the works may have been stolen from Jewish collectors by the Nazis.
Michele Gutierrez, the finance director of San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, lost her job following her claim that Dede Wilsey, the organization’s chief executive officer and board president, paid out $450,000 to a sick staffer without the board’s approval. The payment was made to Bill Huggins, the husband of Therese Chen, a staff member at the de Young museum who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is “well known for doing favors for Wilsey.”
A report revealed that developers in San Francisco are opting to fund their own on-site art installations as opposed to paying 1% of their project costs into the city’s Public Art Trust Fund.
SpaceFinder launched a directory of accessible and inclusive rehearsal and performance spaces for disabled dance artists.
The Francis Bacon estate completed the artist’s catalogue raisonné. The £1,000 (~$1,518) catalogue will be published on April 28, 2016.
Performance artist Lois Evans (aka Lulu LoLo) has been asking New Yorkers to nominate women deserving of a public monument. Only five of the city’s monuments are dedicated to women. “I don’t try to set limits on them,” Evans told the New York Times. “I’m curious about who people think are important and who inspires them. All of my work has been about history, New York City and women.”
Over 4,500 objects from the British Museum can now be viewed on the Google Cultural Institute website.
Anne Frank Fonds, the foundation that holds the copyright to The Diary of Anne Frank (1947) named Anne’s father, Otto Frank, as the co-author of the book. The move is designed to extend the book’s European copyright to the end of 2050.
Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, declared November 20, 2015, as Corita Kent Day.
Ai Weiwei unveiled his first line of jewelry, “Rebar in Gold.” The collection recalls the artist’s monumental installations of metal rebar recovered from collapsed school buildings in the wake of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. When asked by the New York Times whether there was a “contradiction” in using the subject for a line of luxury jewelry, Ai replied that the collection is about “commemoration and memory.” “I used gold because it’s precious, and that’s what life is — precious. If you wear this piece in the name of the memory of a life lost or your life ahead, that’s what matters.”
Sotheby’s will host a sale of Star Wars action figures and memorabilia on December 11.
An association representing retired FBI agents demanded that four artworks by Leonard Peltier be removed from display at the state Department of Labor and Industries headquarters in Tumwater, Washington. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents in 1975.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation demanded that a portrait of Jesus be removed from the Breathitt County Courthouse in Kentucky. “Having the portrait displayed in a government building is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion,” stated foundation attorney Rebecca S. Markert. “This picture conveys to all visitors of the Breathitt County Courthouse that Christianity is the favored religion of government.”
The skull of the bear that inspired A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh will go on display at the Hunterian Museum in London.
The Oxford Dictionary jumped the shark and chose the face with tears of joy emoji as its “Word of the Year.”
Transactions
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art acquired Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (L.A.)” (1991). The work was purchased at Christie’s last week for $7.7 million.
The National Portrait Gallery acquired an archive of Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks, drawings, and letters. The donation settles a bill of £2,940,000 (~$4.47 million) in inheritance tax from the artist’s estate.
The New York Public Library acquired the archives of The New York Review of Books for an undisclosed sum.
The anonymous owner of the derelict Peckham Fire Station donated the building to the South London Gallery.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave a $750,000 grant to the International Center of Photography for the creation of a Center for Visual Culture.
New York’s South Street Seaport Museum will return the four-masted barque Peking (1911) to Germany.
J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver donated $500,000 to endow an education position at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (no link available).
The New York Community Trust donated a $150,000 grant to endow six residencies for artists of color at the International Studio and Curatorial Program.
Miska Draskoczy donated “Pilot House,” a photograph from the artist’s series Gowanus Wild, to the Brooklyn Public Library. The image depicts the historical Coignet Building prior to the development an adjacent Whole Foods store in 2013.
Transitions
The Museum of Modern Art filed an application for its estimated $43-million expansion with the New York City Department of Buildings.
Seattle non-profit Suyama Space will close at the end of 2016.
Whitney W. Donhauser was appointed director of The Museum of the City of New York.
Florence Derieux was appointed the Centre Pompidou Foundation’s curator of American art in New York and curator at large for the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Martha Lucy was appointed deputy director of education and public programs and curator at the Barnes Foundation.
Holly Jerger was appointed staff curator of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles (no link available).
Thomas Rhoads was selected to serve as the interim director of the Menil Collection (no link available). The institution’s longtime director Josef Helfenstein recently left to become director of the Kunstmuseum Basel.
The Musée Picasso and the Centre Pompidou entered into a resources partnership.
The Worcester Art Museum announced that Joe Bafaro Jr. will become the next president of its board. New trustees include Sarah G. Berry, James C. Donnelly, Jr., Mark W. Fuller, and Malcolm A. Rogers.
Michael McGinnis will step down as the president of Phillips at the end of the month.
The Museum of Modern Art Public Foundation received approval for the construction of an art museum in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Brooklyn-based architectural firm REX was selected to design The Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center.
Accolades
Constant Dullaart was awarded the 2015 Prix Net Art. Art collective Weise7 received the award of distinction.
The VIA Art Fund announced the recipients of its Fall 2015 grants.
Pioneer Works announced its Winter-Spring 2016 Artist-in-Residence Program participants (no link available).
Susan L. Talbott, the director and CEO of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, was awarded the Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin (no link available).
Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, was awarded the insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by Bénédicte de Montlaur, the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy.
Ed Ruscha was designated Oklahoma’s 12th Cultural Treasure.
Martha Rosler became the first recipient of the New Foundation Seattle’s aptly named $100,000 art prize, The 100K Prize.
Michelle Obama presented national arts and humanities awards to 12 after-school programs.
Obituaries
Michael Gross (1945–2015), artist and illustrator. Best known for designing the Ghostbusters logo.
Paul Laffoley (1935–2015), artist.
Aaron Shikler (1922–2015), portrait painter.
Yolanda Sonnabend (1935–2015), painter and theatrical designer.
